Segundo Semana

Hola Amigas y Familia!!!!

I made it to the ciber again. Mis compadres y yo are going to try to make it a weekly habit so that week can keep our families and friends up to date. it only costs about 15 cordobas per hour (less than 1 u.s. dollar - the exchange rate is roughly 1 dollar = 22 codobas). Life in Santa Teresa has been very fun so far. Of course I miss the states, but i really enjoy the pace of life down here and the lack of snow. Primarily I miss the familiarity of the states. Its much easier to life and function every day when you know whats expected of you and communicate easily in any setting. My spanish is improving poco a poco as they say down here, and im beginning to be able to form sentences a lot faster. I really love the people in Sta. Teresa. For the most part they are all extremely friendly and patient with us cheles (a common nica name for white girls. Each day we learn more about the health issues facing pregnant women and their children. Next week we are meeting with a group of women from one of the local churches to beginning discussing topics we can give them three charlas (short talks or lessons) on.

This last weekend was filled with loud noises, music, and lots of people due to the festival. While noisy it provided some distracted from what otherwise might have been a boring couple of days. As I said before Im becoming more competent and confident in Spanish so each day i talk with my host mom and family a little more. She keeps telling me that if I talk more and ask more questions I will learn faster but at the same time its only my first couple weeks and the language will come in time. On saturday I found out that it was extremely politically correct to bring uno to nicaragua. In fact my host sister owns it and loves to play it frequently. My host brother kept giving me the wild draw four cards and when they realized i never had yellow cards they picked that on a wild. Boy did they enjoy laughing at me when i had so many cards i had to make a pile on the table. Needless to say I didnt win that round. By that point in the day I was so fed up with Spanish that I spoke
English with Carlos (boyfriend of my host niece) as much as possible.

Sunday was very slow paced like saturday. I spent most of the day reading, studying, watching tv in espanol with my host mom alicia, and taking a nap. However in the evening my host sister asked me if i wanted to go to a baptisma with her. Her husband Juans neice had just been baptised and they were having the traditional post baptisma fiesta. It was at a house just around the corner from my house and when we got there virtually everyone was dressed in white. I however was not but was assured that it was perfectly fine. I was introduced to far to many friends and family members to remember, but it was a lot of fun. As typical of nicaraguan fiestas there was lots of good food, latino music, and of course dancing. Just a forewarning that there may of may not be a video of me attempting to salsa dance with a new “friend“. So Im apologizing in advance if it ever goes public.

Anyway Ive been on the computer for over an hour, so i should probably wrap this up.
I miss you all and hope to post again soon to keep updating you all on my life in nicaragua.

Below is a schedule of the rest of my week
Miercoles = morning class, trip to diriamba for more vacines and a group class
Jueves = typical day of classes
viernes = trip to managua at 5.30 am for a full day of sessions with both groups
sabado = trip to (not sure which city yet) for another day of sessions on maternal and infant health.

Cheers and Peace